søndag 3. juni 2012

I keep forgetting.... The box!

I needed a box for my gift... I kept forgetting that until it was too late and I had to wrap it in paper... Well here's the box -and how to make it!

You can make this box in any shape you want, but I will recommend that you start with a square or rectangular box to learn how to do it. I have made triangular boxes, boxes shaped like letters etc...

You will need:

Some thin cardboard for the box

Nice, thin giftpaper to cover the outside and inside of the box with (not cellophane)

A stick of glue (the strong type)

Some chlothpegs

Scissors

Ruler (preferably 30cm or longer)

Pencil

Some medium thick paper (at least 80g/square meter) to make the pattern for your box

Size: I chose to make one that will be 10cm wide x15cm long and 5cm high.

Pattern: Here you can use any kind of solid paper.Start by drawing a rectangle (10 x15 cm) in the middle of the paper, and make sure the corners are 90* exactly!! This will be the bottom of your box.

Next you need to draw the sides, attached to the bottom. Make the sides 3 cm tall. Your drawing should now look like a "cross", see picture below.

Top at the left, bottom at the right side, at the bottom the strip that will make the inside that the lid wil rest on.

Draw a new line 0.5cm from the top, parallell to the top of each of the sides. This is where the lining will stop.

For the top of the box, make an equal pattern, but the sides will only be 2 cm tall.

Draw a rectangular strip of cardboard that's 4 cm wide and 49,5cm long. This should fit inside the bottom half of the box when finished.

Cut out the pattern and transfer it to the cardboard. Cut out the pieces from the cardboard.

The thicker the cardboard you use the more important is this step! Take a long, straight ruler and place it from "one corner" to the next (NOT diagonally). Take your scissors and use the tip of it to "scratch" the surface of the cardboard. Do this on all four sides.

Bend the sides along the scratched lines (bend away from the scratched side!!), so the short sides meet to form a corner.

Lining for the bottom and the lid: Cut the giftingpaper (here: silvercoloured) so that it covers the pattern, but only to the first of the parallell lines on the sides. Glue the paper to the "inside" of the box, using the glue stick.

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Here you can see the silvercoloured paper for the lining glued to the green cardboard.

This picture also shows you how to draw the outer paper for the box, top and bottom half.﻿

Outside of the box: Cut the paper for the outside to fit the cardboard but add 1 cm to the edges all the way around except the short sides of the largest rectangles. See previous picture!Use adhesive tape to secure the corners of the box, on both top and bottom half before proceeding to the next step.
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Tape the corners using as little tape as possible ;0)

Apply glue to the backside of the giftingpaper for the top, all over the surface! Put the cardboard-top on the paper and smoothe the paper onto the cardboard. Pinch the corners and glue the tags from the small rectangel onto the large rectangle to keep the corners in shape. Glue the giftingpaper of the longest side over the tags.

Wrap the edge of the giftingpaper over the edge of the cardboard all the way around. Make the bottom half in the same way.

The strip of cardboard you cut to fit on the inside of the box: Cut the giftingpaper large enough to cover the strip both on the front and backside.

Glue the cardboard to the backside of the giftingpaper and cover both sides of it with the paper. When the glue has dried bend the corners so it will fit snugly into the bottom half of the box. Remember to leave a few mm so the edges will overlap in one corner. It should look something like this ;0) It actually looke a little bit bigger than the box, but I assure you it fits inside the box.

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Apply glue to the OUTSIDE of the strip of cardboard and put it inside the bottom half of the box. press the sides together so it makes a nice edge inside the box. Like this:

When you have finished the top and the bottom half of the box it should look something like this:

When the glue has dried (about 15 minutes) You can use the box as it is or you can decorate it to suit your taste or what you want to put inside it. Before you put a lot of effort into decorating it further, make sure to try to fit the top and bottom together ;0)

Try to make one or two before you decide to change the design, just to learn the ropes of it. You can make almost any shape of box that you desire. Only remember that the larger the box is, the heavier your cardboard will need to be as well. GOOD LUCK! If you have trouble, please let me know and I'll try to help you!